Weekly Primer: Are Pruitt’s Deregulatory Allies Turning On Him?

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt began feeling the heat from disgruntled allies of his deregulatory agenda this week: Laura Ingraham called for his resignation; Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), the Senate dean of climate-change denial, wants a word; and the Koch-affiliated American Future Fund says he’s “embarrassing President Trump.”  The denunciations mostly followed a report that Pruitt had an EPA staffer reach out to Republican donors in search of a job for his wife, Marlyn. Days before that, Democrats called for a criminal probe of the administrator, and House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-MD) accused him of using a “first in, first out” FOIA policy in order to delay document requests related to his leadership. Deregulators may be somewhat bullish on Pruitt’s departure due to the April confirmation of his deputy, Andrew Wheeler. The former coal lobbyist, Inhofe told Ingraham in an interview, is “really qualified, too” so “that might be a good swap.” Meanwhile, the New York Times reported late…